OFW in Iraq hotel fire from NCotabato

COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao: One of the 13 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who died in a hotel fire in Erbil, Kurdistan in Iraq last Friday was from the town of Pigcawayan, North Cotabato.

Former police officer Kelly Soria of Barangay Poblacion Uno, Pigcawayan confirmed that her daughter — Ruby Jean — has been working in a spa beside the burned Capitol Hotel for the past two years.

“We have accepted her fate,” the older Soria said.

Nelly, Ruby Jean’s mother, and several relatives are now in Manila waiting for the repatriation of her remains from Iraq.

The Philippine Embassy in Iraq, in a statement, said 13 female OFWs have died in a fire that hit the hotel on Friday.

Soria was one of the more than 1,500 Filipinos workers in Kurdistan, mostly as hotel and restaurant personnel, engineers, nurses, beauty shop and household service workers, according to Charge d’affaires Elmer Cato.